"Alberta has one of the best digital signatures in Canada," he said. "We have coverage around the entire province, we're talking really northern areas. Our signal strengths are really good."

When SRD staff need to send a report -- for example, to tell a company their road is in the wrong area -- they can print out maps in the field, instead of taking two weeks to go back to the office, printing and then mailing the report, Ivanc said.

3G networks using the EVDO and HSPA standards are starting to make a difference, Forte said.

"In the last five years that we've been providing our solution we've seen an explosion in demand," he said. "In my opinion and in the opinion of many of our customers, GPRS and 1XRTT were simply not fast enough. With 3G and EVDO I think we're reaching a point where people can work remotely in an efficient way with sufficient bandwidth."